


Year Zero: You're a Monster, Billy

by becklame



Series: Monster High Legacies [1]
Category: Monster High
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy knows he's not normal but doesn't know about monsters, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 20:31:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10521294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/becklame/pseuds/becklame
Summary: Billy's birthday happens to be April first, and he receives a highly unexpected gift.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of my au/fanverse, Monster High Legacies, taking place before the main story.
> 
> Copypasted from my blog for the au:
> 
> "Billy was born to a human mother, Flora Clare, and invisible father, criminal mastermind Jack Griffin. When their son was very young, Flora divorced Griffin and married another invisible man, Thomas Phaden. Billy was raised with as normal of a human upbringing he could possibly have, and his invisibility was merely seen as a genetic condition."
> 
> Also the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album "It's Blitz!" came out a lot more recently than I thought. I wanted something that came out around the the time the au starts (c. 2009-2010) that I could imagine Billy listening to, since he's not familiar with monster music.

April first, 2009 was the thirteenth birthday of Billy Phaden, and the invisible-but-otherwise mostly normal boy did not think it could get any better. His parents had not only given him a special tour of their latest movie’s set, but had also baked him his favorite blueberry pie and gifted him the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, among other things.

Other things that were completely unexpected, at least for Billy.

As the sun began to set on the west coast and the celebration died down, Billy’s mother had asked to speak to him personally in his room.

“Oh, am I in trouble for being a teenager now?” he asked.

His mother gave a small laugh. “No, Billy. There’s one more present I want to give you that I almost forgot about.”

Billy still didn’t quite have the hang of keeping up a solid appearance, but managed a smile despite this. “Well, I’m all for surprises.”

“Wait right here while I get it.”

Billy watched as his mother left the room shortly to come back with an unwrapped box.

She let out a sigh. “Now that you’re old enough, there’s something you should know. Griffin, your birth father, gave this to me before we divorced. He told me to give it to you on your thirteenth birthday. I don’t know what it does, but I’ve opened it and it looks safe enough.”

Billy manifested a raised eyebrow, but accepted the box anyway. 

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll take good care of it.”

\------------------------------------------------------------

Billy didn’t know what to make of the mysterious gift. It looked like some sort of skull made of metal, with a large button on its cranium and a hinged jaw. Whatever it was, it must have been important to Griffin, who had conveniently attached a letter.

Billy opened the envelope and pulled out a series of notes. He looked at the first one:

_Open the jaw. –Griffin_

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the jaw of the skull unhinged with ease. Another note fell out of its mouth, which soon turned into a projector of a map.

Griffin had saved him a fancy map? That was all this was?

He read the second note enclosed in the envelope:

_Touch the map. –J. G._

And the one that was in the skull-map’s mouth for good measure:

_Find Dracula. –J.G._

Was this some kind of practical joke? 

_Leave that to the man who had a son on April Fools’ Day,_ Billy thought at first. Then he noticed that the map had several marked points. He decided to humor Griffin, wherever his current whereabouts, and touched one of the points. The projector was a touchscreen after all, since the action resulted in a name being displayed:

“Victor Stein.”

Not Dracula.

He tried a few other points, and got a few other names: 

“Wade Blue.”

“Clawdia Wolf.”

“Ramses de Nile.”

“These names have got to be fake,” Billy muttered to himself. He sighed and tried one more point on the map.

“Dracula.”

Griffin wasn’t lying, or if he was, he made it very elaborate. It was then Billy noticed a small command next to the name: “contact.”

This skull thing was much more complex than Billy initially thought. Unsure of what would happen next, he tapped “contact” and waited.

Then he was almost afraid of what would await him. An “April fools, Billy” message? Something far nastier? 

That couldn’t be possible. Of course Dracula wasn’t real.

The map display changed to a screen with the message “loading video chat.” After a few seconds, the chat opened, and Billy found himself facing…

Not Dracula. On the other end was a girl around his age, maybe slightly older, with pink and black streaked hair pulled back into pigtails.

“Hello…’Billy?’” she asked in an accent Billy couldn’t quite place. Something European. “Is anyone there?”

After all that trouble of “finding Dracula,” Billy was confused by her presence. 

“How do you know my name?” he asked back.

“That’s the name on your mapalogue, isn’t it?” she asked again.

Now Billy was even more confused.

“Mapa-what now?”

The girl rolled her eyes, which were an unusual pinkish-purple. Maybe she was wearing contacts. “The thing you’re using to talk to me? By the way, I can’t see you. Are you a ghost?”

Billy had almost forgotten that most people weren’t used to his “condition.”

“I’m not a ghost, I’m just invisible,” he explained. “And I just got this map-thingy.”

The girl’s face lit up. “That’s so scary cool! I’m a vampire, though you could probably tell.” She flashed a fanged grin.

Billy remembered the “Dracula” contact.

“Like, a real vampire?” he asked. “Is your name really Drac-“

“Draculaura!” she said, beaming. “And of course I’m a real vampire! Don’t you know anything about monsters?”

Either this _was_ a practical joke, or vampires were totally real, and Billy wasn’t sure which of those was better or worse. He took a deep breath.

“Is this for real?” he asked “Draculaura.” “I know it’s April fools’ day, but please just tell me what’s going on.”

Draculaura was beginning to get annoyed with his skepticism. 

“You are definitely invisible,” she said matter-of-factly. “I am as much of a vampire as you are invisible- except for the blood thing, but more on that later. We are not normal humans, therefore, we are monsters.”

“But I’m not a monster!” Billy practically spat out after hearing her accusation. “I am a human who just happens to have a genetic condition that makes me invisible!”

Draculaura was unfazed by him, as if she had discussed this multiple times before.

“Which, according to human and monster rulings,” she explained further, means you don’t conform to the normal human definition, which makes you a ‘radical attribute dodger,’ i.e., a monster.”

Billy found that explanation too detailed to be something made up for a mere joke.

“How have I not heard about this until now?” he sighed, almost defeated by her persistence.

Draculaura felt a twinge of sympathy for Billy. He really had grown up hidden from the monster world, hadn’t he?

“Where did you get this mapalogue from?” she asked, speaking a little more slowly than usual.

“It was left to me by a man named Jack Griffin,” Billy said.

_Griffin._ Draculaura had definitely heard that name before, because her mood almost immediately picked up again.

“Oh my ghoul! I think he’s a friend of my dad!”

Billy still couldn’t believe the situation. He had to laugh a little.

“Is your dad Dracula, by any chance?”

Draculaura couldn’t help but laugh either.

“What made you guess?”

Billy mentally recalled the entire situation. How this all hinged on Griffin’s note to “find Dracula.”

“I don’t know, just a hunch.”

Draculaura gave another pointy-toothed smile. “Welcome to the monster world, Billy.”


End file.
